The story:  Shortly after we moved to Las Vegas, we started looking for a companion for our German Shepherd. The Shepherd was used to small dogs, so we set off to the local county animal shelter hoping to find a small breed of mutt. The shelter was packed to the gills, dark, depressing, and there was only one tiny dog to be found. She was sleeping far down in her kennel, and wouldn't come to us when we called her or acknowledge our presence in any way. We finally asked a kennel tech to bring her out so we could take a look, although we assumed the dog wouldn't have much interest in us.

When the dog was brought around, it became obvious as to why she had been ignoring us. The dog was matted, filthy, and stunk so badly we couldn't breathe through our noses. Her eyes were glued shut by infection, and her ears totally blocked with more infections. Her skin was red, flaky, and oozing, with large patches of missing hair. "Are you sure you want her?" the kennel worker asked. "She's going to be put to sleep after we close tonight if you don't." The little, smelly dog who couldn't see and couldn't hear skipped happily at the end of her leash and wagged her tail in a rapid circle, like a little helicopter.

It was hard to resist a plea like that. No, this wasn't the dog of our dreams, but we thought we'd take her home, clean her up, and then try to find her a home when she was healthy. The vet at the shelter again tried to discourage us from taking this dog, claiming she had skin and eye disorders which would require hundreds of dollars of medication per month. Still, we insisted on taking her home. The shelter claimed to have given her a bath, but when we drove her home after paying the $13 adoption fee, we had to leave all the windows open and make the dog lie on a plastic bag because the stench was so horrible. We immediately took the dog to our regular vet, who couldn't find any chronic skin or eye conditions, but merely recommended a few baths and treatment for eye and ear infections. The great project we decided to name "Phoenix" had begun.

Of course, we never did try to find Phoenix a new home. Her eyes and ears cleared up, and her hair grew back, but it was obvious she was going to remain our "special needs" child. We eventually discovered she was a Shih-tzu, but for the first couple of months she was unrecognizable. She was happy and playful, but never really seemed to be able to kick the ear infections. It required two ear surgeries to rid her ears of old foxtails and goatheads embedded in her ear canals. She later had another surgery to remove a growth on her gum and to extract a broken molar. We soon discovered that she was blind in one eye, and that she had extreme allergies to food and airborne allergens, so we changed her diet and started to give her allergy shots. She continue to get better, and was always happy despite the fact her health was never at 100%.

Last Friday she started to suffer from frequent urination, a problem she'd had intermittently since we adopted her in 1999. She'd been tested for UTIs before and the results had always been negative, so we assumed her odd urination patterns were just another of her unique quirks. On Friday it rapidly became obvious it wasn't a quirk, but an illness - the urination was incessant and bloody. A trip to the vet detected an extreme bladder infection and a urine with a pH of 9 (normal is about 6.5 or 7). An x-ray revealed that Phoenix's bladder was so riddled with bladder stones that it looked like a bag of marbles. There was perhaps room for a teaspoon of urine to pass through and that was it. We were faced with the decision of going ahead with immediate bladder surgery to remove the stones, or the "other alternative", which was out of the question. You don't let go of a dog who's so darn happy just because finances are tight -- that's when you ask friends, strangers, and Mom and Dad for help ;-)

If you'd like to read more about Phoenix's surgery, you can read descriptions and see photos here: Bladder Stones. It's not for everyone, but some folks (like me) enjoy all the details.

Surgery Update as of 12/31/03: Phoenix is home from the vet and is improving daily!  She still seems to have some minor discomfort and is on pain meds, but she becomes more active by the day.  She truly seems like a happier dog.  On an unfortunate note, her lab results came back and she's now going to be on medication for life, and this medication will cost $60 per month.  She also needs to eat a special diet (about $30 per month).  Add that to the allergy meds she already receives, and she's living the high life!  She returns to the vet the week of the 5th to have her stitches removed and for more urinalysis.  Oh, and she wishes everyone a Happy and Healthy 2004!

Surgery Update as of 1/6/04: Phoenix had her stitches removed, and her new urinalysis showed that her UTI is gone, so that's good news.  Unfortunately she's still in some discomfort, and we were given another three week supply of pain medication to help keep her comfortable.  We also found out that lab reports indicate she suffered from both calcium oxalate and struvite bladder stones, meaning we need to walk a fine line between her pH being too high or too low to prevent recurrence, (and need for more surgery).  Her urine pH went from 9.0 on December 23rd to 5.0 today, so now we need to work on raising it a little to get it in the 7.0 to 7.5 range.  We'll go back in two weeks for another urinalysis to check her progress, so we'll keep you posted.  Just to keep the tally up to date, today's bill was $109 :p

Update as of 1/20/04: We had good news, and some fairly bad news at today's vet visit.  Phoenix is continuing to do well, although still requires pain medication every 12 hours to stay comfortable.  She's on Rimadyl and it's working nicely.  Her urine pH was 7.0, which should be "ideal", but lab results showed the beginnings of struvite crystals again.  She's now taking half a DL-Methionine pill daily and will have to return to the vet in three weeks for a follow-up test.

The bad news (it's really quite unbelievable), is that our other small dog, Cricket, started limping right around the time Phoenix had her emergency bladder surgery.  Cricket is a young dog (3 years old) and as we live in the desert, we assumed she might have twisted an ankle or something while running in the dirt and rocks of the yard.  The limping didn't subside, however, so we also took Cricket in for an appointment today.  The vet diagnosed Cricket with luxating patella in both knees, and said that when the leg is bent, the knee cap is completely out of position.  We'd noticed that Cricket had begun to "lock" her rear legs in the straight position and to use them almost like a pogo stick, rather than bending them to run, and this was the reason.  We were given the choice of using medication to delay the inevitable surgery Cricket would need to repair this problem, but were warned that the longer we delayed, the more we risked permanent damage and arthritis.  So... on Monday, January 26th, Cricket will have bilateral knee surgery to the tune of $1700.  I'm not kidding.  I'm not smiling.  The timing is incredible, and the irony is that Cricket was given to us for free by a local pet shop.  She was a mixed breed, she was sick, and no one wanted her.  So, we took her in, and figured that a "mutt" would be pretty healthy.  As of next Tuesday she'll be worth at least $1700 :)  She's a real sweetie though and very photogenic, so I'll add some of her photos to this page ASAP.  So, as always, sympathy is appreciated.  

By the way, I just donated a $310 gift certificate to BatWorld.org so they could buy night vision equipment to help with bat rescue.  The gift certificate was only for scientific supplies and not of much use to the local animal shelter, but Bat World was very grateful for it.  I had tried to sell it for cash to help out with our little "situation" but had no interested buyers, and hope donating it will promote good karma!

Update as of 1/28/04: Phoenix is doing very well!  We started her on a new series of allergy shots and she had a bit of a bad reaction to the first one, but we were able to settle that down with Prednisone.  She's holding her bladder for hours and hours now -- quite a difference from the old Phoenix who asked to go outside every three hours!  She'll have a follow-up urinalysis on February 9th and we'll find out if we've finally got this pH issue balanced properly.  She shows no residual bad effects from the surgery, and in fact, her scar has faded so much it's barely noticeable.  I wish my hysterectomy scar looked nearly as good!

Update as of 02/23/04: Blech, Phoenix has a bladder infection again :(  She also has calcium oxalate crystals in her urine again, so her medication needs to be adjusted.  Also, for some peculiar reason her allergies have flared up terribly and she's a stinky mess.  However, she's quite happy and cuddly, and doesn't seem deterred by any of the setbacks.  She's now on Keflex for two more weeks.

Update as of 03/13/04:  Nothing much to report, as we're a week late in our vet checkup.  It's now scheduled for next Tuesday, and we hope tests will show this latest bladder infection has been cured.  This past week we were pre-occupied with the unexpected death of our parrotlet, Bubbe :(

Update as of 04/22/04:  It's been a long time since an update, but it's been eventful!  At our mid-March vet visit, we discovered that Phoenix STILL had a bladder infection, so she was put on Baytril for one month.  Last week we took her in for a re-check and the infection remains, so the vet has taken her off all antibiotics for a while to see what happens.  Phoenix's urine pH remains rather low so she's on a new drug to try to raise her pH, as well as on vitamin B6 supplements.  In addition, she developed a really severe skin condition for no apparent reason -- she got very red and crusty, with raised, pigmented patches on her skin.  We're bathing her with medicated shampoo and it seems to be helping, but the severity of the condition is rather odd and inexplicable.

Also, we found out Phoenix suffers from hypothyroidism!  She's now on a daily regimin of Thyroxin and we hope this will help some of her skin problems.  It's only been about a week, so it's too soon to know if the new meds are helping.

Unfortunately, it will be a while before we can offer any new photos on this page.  This past weekend we went out for lunch and someone broke into our car by breaking the passenger-side window, and they stole our digital camera!  It was a crowded, busy parking lot in broad daylight, and the camera was hidden, so we think someone must have watched us pull in to the parking space and seen us place the camera under the seat.  We're hoping to get some reimbursement from our insurance company, and will replace the camera after we've finished replacing the broken window.